"BEFORE YOU FOLLOW THAT DREAM"

Post date: Feb 27, 2018 10:15:02 PM

“Test and evaluate yourselves to see whether you are in the faith and living your lives as committed believers. Examine yourselves not me, or do you not recognize this about yourselves by an ongoing experience that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail the test and are rejected as counterfeit? But I hope you will acknowledge that we do not fail the test nor are we to be rejected. But I pray to God that you may do nothing wrong. Not so that we and our teaching may appear to be approved, but that you may continue doing what is right, even though we, by comparison, may seem to have failed. For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth and the gospel the good news of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 13:5-8.

An examination is the first principle in following your dreams. Examine to know the dream is true, real, and from God. Examine to know what you believe and who you truly believe. Examine to know who you follow and what you believe. Do you believe yourself more than Christ? Do you believe your instincts more than you believe the word of God? When the word of God is contrary to what you know and believe about yourself what will you do? Are you ready to submit yourself to follow the dream or are you ready to fully submit yourself to follow Christ Jesus and obey all His commandments even when they are contrary to your dreams and your actions? Are you ready to submit yourself to follow any man because of the dream or are you ready to follow only people who are supportive of your dream? Are you ready to submit yourself to follow people for the sake of the dream or are you ready to follow people because of Christ Jesus? Are you willing to follow others for the sake of fulling the dream or do you want others to follow you because of the dream? Are you ready to only invest in your dream or are you ready to invest in the kingdom of God? The true examination of self will reveal your motive, your willing commitment, and the success you will have in following the dream.

If the dream is from God, investing in the kingdom of God and in the things that exalt Him will open up doors for the dream to be actualized, but when you close your eyes to the things of God while pursuing the dreams of God, it will make the actualization of the dream tough and difficult.  Do unto others what you would like them to do unto you in every situation. God has called you to succeed in the dream but that success may require you doing what naturally you would not want to do; it may require you to first be a submissive and obedient servant; a true follower, a true supporter and a true confidant as it was the case with Samuel and Eli. “So then, in everything treat others the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the essence of the Law and the writings of the Prophets. If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people’s things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?” Matthew 7:12; Luke 16:10-12. While the dream is real, God might want you to first learn through submission to others and through faithfulness and obedience and truthfulness and simplicity and faithfulness.

Examine yourself thoroughly to know if you are truly in Christ Jesus and Born Again, examine yourself to know if you are obedient to the words and commandments of God and not obedient to follow the dream only; examine what makes you happy, is it the dream or the instructions and commandments of God; examine to know if you have true love for Christ Jesus as your only Lord, only Savior and only redeemer, if you have true love for all of His words and for all His works or you just want to follow the dream ignoring other aspects of His words, His works, and His commandmentss. True self-examination will tell you more about yourself, your dreams, your actions and the expected result. Examine your motive for believing the dream and desiring to follow it and examine if your heart is perfectly knitted with Christ in your past, present and future actions, God does not desire you being a failure, but a true success. For prayer Click here